Rafael Correa's Multicolored Dream Shirt: Commerce, Creativity, and National Identity in Post-Neoliberal Ecuador

Resumen

Abstract During the transmission ceremonies in 2007, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa wore a specially tailored, elaborately embroidered shirt. Since then he has used such shirts on official state visits, given them to heads of state, and worn them during national events – elevating them as a symbol of his presidency. In this paper, we report on the apparel producer, fashion designer, and embroiderer who created the shirt, showing how their creativity, understandings of intellectual property, and economic plans for the shirt illustrate important currents of Ecuador's post-neoliberal economy. Drawing on interviews with the three protagonists as well as a multi-year study of apparel production in Ecuador's northern Andes, we trace the connections among the women's views and the legacy of neoliberal development for small producers. Our analysis uses the idea of a cultural commons to show how small-scale clothing manufacture relies on shared design and marketing resources and, consequently, how producers develop practices of stewardship as part of their working lives. Concerns for the longevity of a trade foster a political consciousness that in turn shapes citizen evaluations of the economic sovereignty that Correa's presidency has promised. Keywords: EcuadorRafael Correaartisanstextilesintellectual property Acknowledgements This work was funded in part with support from the National Science Foundation (#BCS-0966609), The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Hartwick College Faculty Research Grants Program. The authors are grateful to Ramiro Loza Cisneros and Juan Carlos Pozo for their photographic skill. They also thank the Ecuadorian Studies section of the Latin American Studies Association and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois for opportunities to present this research. Finally, our deepest debts are to Alicia Cisneros, Sandra Meza, and Teresa Casa for the time they took to speak with us about their work. Notes Notes [1] The following sources provide a useful orientation to the extensive writing on Andean textiles and the cultural importance of clothing in Latin America: Meisch (1987 Meisch, LA. 1987. Otavalo: Weaving, Costume, and the Market, Quito: Ediciones Libri Mundi. [Google Scholar], 2002 Meisch, L. 2002. Andean Entrepreneurs: Otavalo Merchants and Musicians in the Global Arena, Austin: University of Texas Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Rowe (1998 Rowe, A. P. (ed.) (1998) Costume and Identity in Highland Ecuador, University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA [Google Scholar]), Femenías (2005 Femenías, B. 2005. Gender and the Boundaries of Dress in Contemporary Peru, Austin: University of Texas Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Root (2005 Root, R. A. (ed.) (2005) The Latin American Fashion Reader, Berg, New York [Google Scholar]), Roces and Edwards (2007 Roces, M and Edwards, L. 2007. "Trans-national flows and the politics of dress in Asia and the Americas". In The Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas, Edited by: Roces, M. and Edwards, L. 1–18. Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press. [Google Scholar]) and Rowe et al. (2007 Rowe, APMiller, LM. 2007. Weaving and Dyeing in Highland Ecuador, Austin: University of Texas Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). [2] Interview with Sandra Meza, Atuntaqui, Ecuador, 25 May 2007. [3] Interview with Alicia Cisneros, Quito, Ecuador, 17 July 2009. [4] Newspaper report, Guayaquil, el Universo, 16 January 2007, política, p. 1. [5] Interview with Sandra Meza, Atuntaqui, 25 May 2007. [6] Interview with Sandra Meza, Atuntaqui, Ecuador, 10 July 2009. [7] Interview with Teresa Casa interview, Ibarra, Ecuador, 16 July 2009.